President Donald Trump left the White House Friday for a five-day “working visit” to his luxury golf clubs in Scotland, a trip many have painted as an attempt to dodge the growing scrutiny surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
Trump arrived in Scotland on Friday and is expected to spend part of his trip at his Turnberry golf resort, as well as attend the opening of his Aberdeen club, named after his Scottish mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, CNN reported.
Despite a packed schedule that includes trade talks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday and multiple meetings with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to discuss trade agreements with the European Union (EU) and the UK, according to reporting by ABC News, many view the visit as an attempt to sidestep mounting media scrutiny over the ongoing Epstein controversy.
The U.S. president has attempted to distance himself from the disgraced financier following the Department of Justice’s announcement that no additional files, aside from a grand jury testimonial, would be released, sparking outrage among his MAGA supporters. In place of an Epstein-related document dump, the Trump administration tried to shift focus by releasing more than 230,000 pages of Martin Luther King Jr. files. Simultaneously, the administration proposed changes to Coca-Cola’s recipe and targeted “The View,” seemingly aiming to divert media attention.
However, upon landing in Scotland, Trump was asked whether he asked “House Republican leaders to not vote on the resolution about the Epstein files” upon landing at Glasgow Prestwick Airport.
“Did you ask House Republican leaders to not vote on the resolution about the Epstein files?” a reporter asked Trump after he landed at Glasgow Prestwick Airport.
“No, I was never involved in that,” Trump said. “I’m focused on making deals, I’m not focused on conspiracy theories that you are. I mean, I watch you people, it’s so sad. You ought to talk about the success of our country instead of this nonsense you talk about over and over again,” he added.
In response to his arrival, the “Stop Trump” coalition organized demonstrations outside U.S. consulates across Scotland on Saturday, AP News reported. Along with condemning the impact of his luxury Trump resorts on Scotland, protesters criticized what they believe is his harmful worldwide influence.
“I think there are far too many countries that are feeling the pressure of Trump and that they feel that they have to accept him and we should not accept him here,” June Osbourne, an Edinburgh resident attending Saturday’s protest told AP News. The dual-U.S.-British citizen said the Republican president was “the worst thing that has happened to the world, the U.S., in decades.”
Originally published on Latin Times
